Julian Palacz: Maneki-neko Stories

artVideoLoop # Maneki-neko Stories
Opening: Wed 09.04.2025, 18h
monochrom | MQ Schauräume

HD-Video, Bewegungsapparat einer Glückskatze, LED-Display ⋅ 2013

A lucky cat tells its own story. The iconic figure that promises prosperity with its waving paw is transformed: Its movement gives way to an LED ticker that passes on its own legend. The video documents this intervention and makes the transformation of cultural symbols in the interplay of tradition and technology visible. The medial transformation shifts their function - from lucky charm to narrator, from object to message. Is the symbol disenchanted by this change or does it become even more charged?

Julian Palacz, born in 1983, lives and works in Vienna and Mürzzuschlag. His work is dedicated to the visualization and poetic processing of data that we leave behind, both digitally and physically, and that is automatically collected by various actors. His works have been shown at Casino Luxembourg, Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, and Palazzo Zenobio, Venice, among others. In addition, Julian Palacz received the Wimmelforschungs-Stipendium at Bosch Campus Renningen and Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Austrian State Scholarship for Video and Media Art and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Residency Shanghai. Since 2022 he has been teaching at the University of Applied Arts Vienna on art on the blockchain, decentralized internet and NFTs.